Category: punjabi poetry

1930. The people of Nakodar are wonderstruck tonight.
In the tent a silent film is being shown
and my chacha uncle Mohan Singh plays the harmonium.
A window is illumined in the wall of darkness.
The actors move their lips, voiceless.
A flower blossoms, silently.
In the film when they walk it seems they are running.
People watch their dream and laugh to their heart’s content.
Uncle Mohan Singh is accompanying them with his harmonium
and making the flowers blossom.
Tonight the people of Nakodar are dreaming together
awake.http://india.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=10514

Simple imagery but very evocative. “A window is illumined in the wall of darkness”-imagine people sitting huddled in the tent to watch the silent movie,the screen appearing luminous in the sea of darkness. “The actors move their lips ,voiceless”-strange cinema where you have to imagine what the characters are saying by their lip movements.Even the flower here blossoms silently but Uncle Mohan Singh is actively making the flowers blossom through his harmonium music.Tonight the people of Nakodar are dreaming together their joint dreams and perhaps,their separate dreams as well.

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Contemporary Indian poetry

A selection of Indian poetry .Some poems belong to the genre called Indo-Anglian poetry and some are translations from the Indian languages . The interpretation is essentially a personal one ,not necessarily conforming to the accepted tenets of
literary criticism.